Rescue
by bluesimageburgundy
Summary: Stefan finds out that Caroline has been with Enzo for months and goes to rescue her. But does she want to be rescued? Set post season 5 finale. Based on season 6 spoilers.


It really was a nice place. He would give them that. Art Deco architecture. Amazing location. He looked up at the towering apartment complex in front of him, blocking the sun from his eyes with his hand. With an already exhausted sigh, he dropped his hand and made his way inside.

Stefan Salvatore was on a mission. A mission to rescue his best friend.

Okay, maybe she didn't need to be "rescued" exactly. Maybe he just needed her back. Maybe it was selfish to come and try to collect her from her new life and bring her home with him just because he wanted her back. He had called to check on her. After too long. He knew he should have called sooner. She had sounded happy on the phone. But something hadn't sit right with him about her voice. It was...too happy. Even for Caroline. So when she told him where she was staying, he left immediately to find her.

He was standing outside the door of the room she had told that she was sharing with Enzo. Stefan's eyes rolled involuntarily from even thinking of his name. To say that he didn't care for Enzo would be quite the understatement. He had practically turned Damon into a Ripper and framed Stefan for his murder, before torturing them all from beyond the grave.

And now Caroline was basically living with him. Stefan's fist clenched at that particular thought. He took a deep breath that he didn't actually need, exhaled and then knocked. He could hear music, shuffling, confused murmurs, giggles and then walking. The door swung open to reveal his best friend. He hadn't seen her in months.

Her hair was messy, her eyes a little bleary but just as beautifully blue as the last time he'd seen her, her cheeks flushed and youthful. A blue and pink silk kimono robe covered her down to her mid thighs. He didn't want to think about what, if anything, was underneath. She looked too much like a stranger to him.

Her face went from annoyance, to confusion, to a brilliantly beautiful Caroline smile in the span of a few seconds. Then he was wrapped up in her arms. The smell of Enzo all over her. Stefan fought back the urge to scrunch up his nose at the scent. When he only half-heartedly hugged back, she released him and stepped back.

"Oh my god, Stefan! Aren't you a sight for sore eyes!" She squealed, sounding every bit like herself, "What are you DOING here?" She shoved playfully against his shoulder. He mustered a moody Stefan smile.

"I'm..." the thought crossed his mind to lie. To say that he was just passing through. But he decided against it, "I came to see you...check on you...and maybe...convince you to come home...?" By the end of the sentence, he was wincing. The offer didn't exactly sound appealing. He didn't think he'd even have accepted it.

Her eyebrows shot up and she half choked/half chuckled, crossing her arms in front of her.

"Seriously?!" she laughed, "Stefan...have you seen my house? I mean, it's a little messy right now, but still...gorgeous, right?" She motioned around her to her spacious apartment and his eyes followed her hand. Amazing view of the city. Meticulously decorated with very expensive, no doubt stolen, furniture. Littered with dead bodies.

Wait...that last part wasn't right.

Stefan's mouth dropped open as he looked around the graveyard before him. At least ten bodies were strewn across the room. All from within the past couple of days. He probably would have smelled them if not for him being so distracted with Caroline's Enzo-scented perfume.

"Caroline..." Stefan began when he found his voice.

"What?" Caroline asked, actually managing to sound oblivious to what he might be upset about.

"What have you done?" he asked, horrified, stepping past her and letting himself into the room. Any other time, the smell of blood would have driven him crazy and he would have been adding to the pile-up himself. But the thought of Caroline being responsible for this made him so sick that he didn't have much of appetite.

Caroline giggled again, throwing her head back. She closed the door behind her and walked to stand next to him.

"Stefan," she laughed, "We're just having some fun. You should know better than anyone that it's a great way to let off some steam. So, what do you think about the place?! Are you staying for long? I can show the best places to hear live music and..eat," she winked and nudged him with her elbow.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. He rubbed the heels of his hands across his eyes in frustration. "Are you kidding me right now? You KNOW how much I hate the Ripper. As my "sober sponsor", you would think that you would understand how wrong this is!"

"I'm not a Ripper, Stefan," she said calmly as if they weren't standing amidst piles of corpses. "I know exactly what I'm doing. Besides, we snagged them from prisons. They're all murderers and rapists. Well...mostly. That guy over there tried to overcharge me for a bag I had my eye on." She giggled again. It sounded strange to him.

"What HAPPENED to you?" Stefan all but yelled, walking to the large windows and looking out over the city, attempting to calm down.

"That would be me, mate," came an annoyingly familiar voice from another room. Stefan whipped around to see Enzo emerging from what he could only assuming was a bedroom, wearing nothing but a pair of black boxers. Stefan's fangs itched. "Long time no see," Enzo teased, breezing up next to Caroline and placing a kiss on her shoulder. Caroline rolled her eyes, "You WISH you had that much influence on me!" She swatted at him playfully.

Stefan's blood boiled. What WAS this? Was Caroline under some kind of compulsion? Or was it worse than that? Were they in love or something and she was living like this by choice?

"Care for a bite? I think that one still has a sip or two left in her," he said with an unnerving smile, motioning toward a young woman's body in the corner of the room.

"You," Stefan growled. He grabbed Enzo and pinned him against the wall, eyes red and fangs out. Enzo smirked and rolled his eyes.

"Gonna kill me, Stefan? Again?" he taunted.

"Stefan! Stop!" Caroline scolded from where she stood. She made no move to physically stop him. Did she not care what happened to Enzo? Or did she just know that Stefan would never actually kill him?

"Better listen to her, mate." Enzo continued to talk, "She can be a real tiger," Enzo winked.

Stefan growled and threw him across the room. He crashed into a bookshelf, which broke and splintered.

"Ugh, guys!" Caroline complained, "That was an antique!" She scampered over and began to pick up the books that had scattered around Enzo's fallen body.

"What is going on, Caroline," Stefan fumed.

She stacked up all the books and pushed them up against the broken bookshelf.

"You're going to replace this, right?" she said, gesturing toward the busted up furniture.

Stefan continued to stare at her until she laughed.

"Still so broody, huh Stefan?" she walked over to a chair by the window, knocking a man's body out of it and then lounging in it herself, "Some things never change." She stretched her long pale legs out in front of her.

Enzo stood and brushed the splintered wood from his body, the few cuts healing and leaving little smudges of blood on his skin. He walked to the kitchen to make himself a drink and then disappeared back into the room with it. Stefan watched him suspiciously. Caroline stared out the window.

"I'm fine, Stefan. I'm just...living my life," Caroline said, breaking the silence and sounding more like herself than she had.

"And this is what you call living life now?" Stefan said sadly, indicating the bodies around the room, "And that," he said with more emphasis, pointing toward the room that Enzo had escaped to.

Caroline shrugged.

"What SHOULD I be doing, Stefan?" she asked, finally looking at him, "My best friend is dead. You were busy with Elena. I have no home. No job. No school. So I left. Enzo just invited himself along."

"And you let him come?" Stefan asked, looking around at the bodies and mentally trying to figure out how he was going to clean them up.

"Maybe I didn't want to be alone," she said softly before turning her tired eyes back outside.

Stefan's shoulders slumped, the self-righteousness suddenly deflating from him. Who was he to say how a person should live their life? And she was his best friend. Shouldn't he want happiness for her. And she did SEEM happy. The only problem was that he knew that somewhere in the back of her mind she probably hated herself.

"And you're going to stay. Keep doing this," Stefan said softly. They weren't questions.

Caroline turned to look at him again and smiled sadly.

"Why would I leave?" she said so matter-of-factly that he couldn't give her any reason to come with him. Maybe she had wanted him to give her a reason.

Defeated, Stefan stood and walked toward the door. He paused and looked back at Caroline.

"If you change your mind..." he began.

She nodded and smiled. Something in her eyes made him hesitate. Was it a cry for help? Should he just knock her out and throw her over his shoulder like a cave man? It's what Lexi would have done for him. But this was different. She had her humanity. She was in control. She was just...lost. So he should just leave her? Let her get it out of her system. Or get her out of here before she was too far gone.

"Stefan," her small voice interrupted his ponderings.

He locked eyes with his best friend.

"I missed you," she admitted, honesty making her voice sound raw.

The sincerity in her voice made Stefan feel warm and happy in a way that he hadn't felt in months. He smiled at her. And it was real. And he knew without a doubt that he would see her again and that it would be soon.

He opened the door and let himself out.


End file.
